New boy...

...Harvey arrived on Sunday.   He is a 7 year old Quarter horse - not a common breed in the UK at all, and is a lovely little chap.  He is extremely sociable, and quickly made friends with Zan, Felix, Charlie and even Angel!

Inventing a game with bad boy, Angel

Turned out overnight in a small field with a big view - Harvey is the blur trotting round and round Felix!

Harvey has had a long spell of lameness, which appeared to improve intermittently but then got worse again.   He came out of shoes 3 or 4 months before he arrived here but had previously been shod with Natural Balance, regular and plastic Imprint shoes, none of which had helped him, and in January he was diagnosed with DDFT and collateral ligament problems.  

His hooves have improved out of shoes but he still has a long toe and under-run heel and efforts to shorten his toe by trimming it just ended up making him very sore.    His feet are a good example of how DDFT and collateral ligament problems within the hoof are not as clear-cut as being a shoeing problem, and equally can't be solved merely by so-called "barefoot trimmming"!  Its the internal structures which need to be strengthened and developed, and I hope we will be able to help Harvey do just that over the next few weeks.